If You're Voting (And Please Do), Here's How To Tell The World About It

The impact of social media on politics has never been more profound than in 2016. With both presidential candidates active on Twitter (and elsewhere), campaigning has found an important outlet that allows for immediate participation. Voters can not only share and respond instantly, they can amplify their voice out to others who share their preferences -- or don't. A new app and website called Brigade has some cool new ways to do that. While it won't likely tip the balance this election day, it does offer a glimpse into a new way of persuading people.

Start a movement? The Brigade app can not only help you decide who to vote for but lets you recruit others to join once your mind is made up (Photo credit: Brigade)

"Our mission is to increase civic participation using technology," Brigade CEO Matthew Mahan said. "We want people... to learn about issues by discussing and debating." Brigade's tool lets voters share as little or as much as they want, whether it's merely a "pledge" to vote or a report of who you will choose. Brigade has tools built in where you can broadcast those choices on your social network, including a description of why you picked a certain candidate.

In 2012, nearly 130 milllion votes were cast for president and Brigade will admit that as a startup, it currently only reaches a small fraction. But with 400,000 pledges to vote already posted and more than 1 million invites from users to others encouraging the same, it's growing rapidly.

But while the presidential election always catalyzes voter interest, Brigade is targeting a broader mission, "to connect people to the districts they live in and the people that represent them," Mahan said. He notes that the average person has about 30-40 people elected to represent them in some capacity, between mayors; governors; federal/state/city representatives and others, like school board members and insurance commissioners.

With many states also supporting direct democracy in some form -- think ballot propositions -- it can take a lot of cognitive energy to figure our just who and what to vote for. Brigade hopes that your social network can help inform you how to make all those choices. There are Q-and-A tools to help you figure out which candidate most aligns with your viewpoints along with the aforementioned sharing options.

While many of us have already made up our minds about which candidate we'll pick for president -- and despite the media reports, a huge number of people haven't changed that preference at all this year -- there are a lot of races where the choices aren't so cut and dried. Brigade hopes to harness the wisdom of the crowd to help people navigate that maze.

"We're essentially collaboratively voting," Mahan said of Brigade users. "You're embedded in a dense network of people who have different expertise and you can get competing arguments from people you trust." The appeal of that should be obvious, but what might really help is the idea of centralizing that expertise. I've personally found excellent arguments through Medium and via Twitter helping me navigate complex issues, especially ballot measures. But most of the good stuff has come to me almost by accident. If Brigade has its way, in the future you'll find those things more easily.

That's only true, of course, if people use Brigade. "It's a network product that gets smarter over time," Mahan said. "It's going to be more accurate if you're connected to other people." But he also hopes it's going to be smarter the more it knows you. "For people who use the product over time, we get signals on what they care most about."

Mahan is looking ahead to next year, when many cities chose a new mayor to see how well what they've learned in 2016 translates going forward. He's well aware that learning is only part of the challenge. "Americans are eligible to vote all the time," Mahan said, "but we elect a lot of mayors with 10-20% turnout -- and primaries are even worse."

Brigade hopes to turn its users into regular voters. "We want to try to create a habit," Mahan said, explaining that part of the plan is to help people channel their passion. "If we know your number one issue is education reform, we'll let you know if your state senator is voting on an education bill," he offers as an example.

Of course, this won't be easy. Mahan is well aware people won't use Brigade daily, except perhaps near Election Day. He's hoping to build a large audience around voting and civic participation, what he called an "underserved vertical" in the language of Silicon Valley. And Mahan hopes that growth will come from "building a great consumer experience for voters."

In the long run, if the audience gets large enough, Mahan sees the product as a sort of LinkedIn for candidates and prospective constituents. "We [hope] to go to candidates and advocacy groups and find ways to play a matchmaking role," he said.

To get there, the company will have to demonstrate it's having an impact. Mahan notes that after voting for president, many will simply stop filling our their ballots. He wants to encourage that down-ballot engagement through information sharing and a kind of gentle social pressure. Imagine the digital equivalent of "I Voted" badges on a grander scale. The company will look back after the election to see what impact all the pledges and shares really had on users.

Although this election cycle has highlighted the partisan divide, Brigade understands it needs to be objective and non-partisan. But Mahan does have one issue he shared his belief about: "I believe when you are 18, you should automatically be registered," he said, suggesting that civics classes should come even before that, teaching people about the system, their rights and voting generally. "That registration should be portable and let you vote wherever you are."

Those kinds of changes will take time to become reality -- if they ever do -- but in the meantime Brigade and Mahan hope to at least cultivate a new generation of better informed voters. If they have their way, you'll vote next Tuesday, whoever you choose.